Wednesday, May 09, 2007

The bullish press comment about Ubuntu Linux continues, this time from Ziff Davis/UPI:

With companies and individuals everywhere failing to find the wow in Windows Vista, Apple's OS X riding iPod sales and snarky commercials to steady growth, and long-time Microsoft partner Dell announcing plans to market a Linux desktop to the mainstream, it seems certain that the days of Microsoft's desktop monopoly are numbered.

Granted, that number is probably a large one, but as evidenced by eWEEK Labs' tests of Ubuntu Linux 7.04, the state of the Linux desktop - not to mention that of other Windows alternatives - is too strong to hold off heterogeneity forever.

Ubuntu Linux 7.04, which Dell has chosen to headline its desktop Linux foray, has made impressive strides toward claiming a spot on mainstream desktop and server machines, both by piling up advances made across the Linux and open source community, and by building in advances of its own.

I've run Linux exclusively at home for a number of years. I do game a little and both Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament play quite happily on Linux.

But as my day job is with Solaris and other Unix-type machines I suppose I'm not typical.

My parents happily use an Ubuntu based machine which I set up for them because that way I don't have to worry about constant problems like those from my wife's Aunt's Windows laptop which is a virus/trojan/worm infested nightmare.

And my kids have used a Linux machine since the eldest was around 5 and it doesn't seem to bother them either.